Panel Report: Recommendations for Long-Term Coral Reef Monitoring in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary

Miller, Steven; Hulbert, Alan

Introduction and Summary of Panel Recommendations: This report presents rationale and recommendations for conducting long-term monitoring of coral reef communities in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS). Panel members included scientists with national and international experience in coral reef science, statistics, and experimental design (see Appendix). Sanctuary personnel participated with the panel and specifically helped define programmatic goals. The detailed recommendations presented by the panel are not found in workshop reports previously conducted to assist the Sanctuary in design of a monitoring program (Miller 1988, Ray and Atwood 1991, Harwell1991). Major panel recommendations related to program goals and methodology are summarized below: Panel-recommended program goals are to: 1. Detect and describe change to coral reefs on a Keys-wide scale. 2. Maximize the number of monitored reefs on a Keys-wide scale, as soon as possible. 3. Incorporate geographic scale, management strategy, and habitat types into program organization. Patch reefs, hardbottom and sites in Florida Bay should be included. 4. Complete initial sampling within two years. Data analysis must be completed in a timely manner. This includes efforts to process data, manage data, and analyze data. 5. Publish results and establish video and slide archives. 6. Conduct independent program reviews on a regular basis. Panel-recommended methodologies and designs include: 1. Video techniques because they provide the best use of time and effort to encompass the largest number of sites. Additional sampling techniques should be weighed against the added time it takes to collect more data, and the resulting decrease in ability to monitor more reefs. 2. Parameters to monitor, such as the number and percent cover of: 1) major coral species and other major benthic sessile invertebrates; 2) fleshy, coralline, and turf algae; 3) dead coral, sand, and hard bottom; and 4) number of species and relative abundance of fishes. 3. A repeated measures design at the among-reef and within-reef scales. 4. Power analyses to determine appropriate sample sizes to insure that statistically and biologically relevant within-reef and among-reef comparisons are possible. 5. Monitoring fishes: Point sample methods and strip transect methods should be evaluated to determine which techniques are best suited to detect change, Keys-wide. Program Goals: The panel recognized that there are presently data and ongoing efforts to quantify precise changes in reef communities at a few specific sites along the Keys reef tract. • What is critically lacking is any ability to say what is happening to reefs Keys-wide. To acquire these data, many reefs must be monitored less intensely, rather than a few monitored in great detail. A recommended goal of the program is to provide sufficiently detailed information about a large number of reefs to document change over time throughout the Keys.